A movement, which appears like a mouse scurrying away, on the flaming hot engines of Space X's Falcon 9, has left netizens believing that a mouse accompanied astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on their historical journey to the International Space Station (ISS).
The launch took place on May 30, three days after the first attempt to launch the "Crew Demo-2" mission on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was delayed due to bad weather on May 27. The rocket carried two US astronauts, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, and a toy dinosaur.
Mouse Running on Rocket's Fuselage Goes Viral
The historical event was live streamed with over 10 million viewers watching it globally. The event was special for the US as it saw the lift-off of US astronauts from from American soil after a lull of nine years.
The "mouse" was spotted by a viewer who pointed out the "rodent" scurrying around the rocket's fuselage. Sharing the 23-second long clip on Twitter, the user, who goes by the name Beach Milk, wrote: "Looks like a MOUSE hitchhiked a ride on Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket launch today! The mouse showed a truly amazing ability to withstand heat!"
The clip garnered 1.2 million views since it was uploaded on May 31. While several users debated whether the mouse was an actual rodent or frozen oxygen, one pointed out that it was an old video of Space X related to the previous launches undertaken by the private player.
Twitter Divided Over the 'Space Mouse'
Soon after the clip was uploaded, it created a furor on the micro-blogging site. "I don't care what you say, that is a mouse," wrote one user. "Barn girl here... Walks like a mouse, talks like a mouse, looks like a mouse... it is a mouse," wrote another.
"Oh man poor little guy wonder how long he lasted? Maybe he held on until breakaway," pointed out another.
Quashing the claims of a mouse hitchhiking a ride to outer space, one user wrote: 'If it was truly in outer space then how did the mouse remain tethered to the rocket and not float away?"
"Why wasn't it scorched to death by the intense heat? This is clearly a hoax," backed another.
"That's a bead of water that's condensed on the foil, you can see it drip off onto the rocket end, and as it's so hit it fizzles and makes it 'run off to the side," said a user.
"Its evaporation and water vapor trapped on the cold side of the rocket sliding down and into the crevices of the rocket hood," said another user.
